misty web
Originally uploaded by Carol J Carpenter.

Misty Vision

Surround us with fog
an enveloping grey cocoon
blurring the razored rainbow
with velvety silver dew

Tenderly shear our glistening wool
Thick, billowy, and warm
skein together a soft
cloak of distant, aching hearts
Quietly whisper in misty clouds
echoes of gracious antiquity
laughter of children
erase our divide
to the touch
of one open hand.

Hedge Apples

Hedge Apples

Hedge Apples from an osage orange tree
Originally uploaded by Carol J Carpenter.

In my backyard rests
a pyramid of hedge apples,
pitched from an osage orange,
strewn like Bacci balls
across the brown grass.

The chartreuse pyramid rises,
a Mayan temple for ants,
the reverent cathedral of
a fretfully bored husband
or dreadfully organized squirrels.

Hay Bales Haiku

hay bales 2
Originally uploaded by Carol J Carpenter.

Grandma's wooden spools
tumble across the shag green
carpet on the hill

Sunflower sunset near Salem, NE

Sunflower

I am a sunflower
my tough stalk firm
and hearts of green
a laughing face forever
romping with the sun
across September’s golden sky.

Great Blue Heron

Cast serenity over me
Regal hunter of the lake, grant me
if you please, an audience in your court where
I arrive, as always, foolishly unprepared. No gifts
I bring of frog or fish. Your
amber eye invades, calming me.
On stilted legs, you perch and preen.
Teach me if you will,
the value of remaining still.